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"Are there sea dragons, too?" Peyton asked, his eyes wide.
"What would the Phantom Sea be without sea dragons?" Saetan murmured.
"How'd we get sea dragons in the pond?" Peyton whispered to Mephis.
"Papa's going to make them for us," Mephis whispered back.
"Oooh." Peyton looked up at Saetan, his gold eyes sparkling with anticipation.
"If we're ready, gentlemen," Saetan said, handing the ship back to Mephis.
"And I suppose you're going to end up muddy to the knees and smelling like pond water," a female voice said.
Saetan turned to face the woman now standing in the doorway. He had no complaints about Lady Broghann, the Purple Dusk-Jeweled witch who was the boys' governess and teacher, but he was feeling a little too raw to accept a challenge from anyone, especially a woman.
Then he saw the humor in her eyes that balanced the stern tone of voice.
"I expect some mud will be inevitable," Saetan said solemnly.
"Yay!" Peyton said, only to be elbowed again by Mephis.
Puppy is going to be black-and-blue before he figures out when to keep quiet,Saetan thought.
"Now," Lady Broghann said. "Don't go drinking so much grog that you run aground."
"What's grog?" Peyton asked, starting to bounce with impatience.
"You would know if you had paid attention to the lesson about sailing," she replied.
While Peyton's face scrunched up in thought, Saetan turned away and coughed to clear the laughter from his throat.
Finally able to look suitably grim, he turned back to his captains. "Shall we go?" Then he noticed the boys' appearance.The trousers were worn to the point of looking shabby, and there was a long tear on the left sleeve of Peyton's shirt…neatly mended but still apparent. "Why are you wearing those clothes?"
"This is the attire of adventurous sailors," Lady Broghann said.
Curious, Saetan studied her. "According to… ?"
"My mother. I have three younger brothers."
And her younger brothers had a clever older sister.
"An unquestionable authority," Saetan said with a small bow.
"What's grog taste like?" Peyton asked, having circled back to something more interesting than clothes.
"It tastes like milk," Saetan replied.
"Sailors drink milk?"
"Short ones do."
While Peyton was working out why Mephis was snickering, Commander Saetan led captains Mephis and Peyton to the Phantom Sea, where they tested their ships against Murky Mists, Wailing Whirlpools… and sea dragons.
2
Hekatah stood at the window of her mother's private receiving room, rubbing her belly to soothe the whelp inside her while she stared at the back garden.
How much did Saetan know? Was the comment about not having to maintain a household simply a comment, or did he know about the little house she kept in Draega for the pretty toy-boys? It wasn't that she didn't enjoy sex with Saetan. He was an exquisite lover. How could a man who had been Witch's Consort for years not be exquisite in bed? But he wasn't as muchfun. She couldn't play with him the way she could the toy-boys. So why shouldn't she enjoy a romp with a male she could dominate? Besides, it wasn't like she was doing anything wrong. Fidelity and sexual exclusivity were required of the male in a marriage, not the female. Malesserved, after all.
But Warlord Princes were a law unto themselves, and a Black-Jeweled Warlord Prince might not think the status of a wedding ring was sufficient reason to overlook his wife's lovers.
Her mother, Martella, entered the room, unhappiness and embarrassment rolling off her in waves.
"We had to go to a different butcher, so the Darkness only knows what the cook will set before us for the evening meal. And the bastard demanded payment before he'd hand over the meat!" Martella s mouth thinned to a petulant line. "I had to return the pearl brooch I'd bought last week in order to pay for the meat." She sighed as she joined Hekatah at the window. "Your…husband … is being difficult about assisting the family, isn't he?"
"He says he won't make another loan because the extra million gold marks he gave Father wasn't used for the estates as they'd agreed."
"How could it be?" Martella cried. "Your brothers wanted that new carriage and team of horses, and then there was that payment that the Queen demanded we make because that witch was broken when Caetor got a little too enthusiastic about enjoying himself."
"Didn't she tell him she was virgin?" Hekatah asked.
"Well, of course she did. But she wasn't anyoneimportant. Nothing would have come of it if her family hadn't gone to the Queen and made a formal accusation. And they said it wasrape, insisting the girl hadn't agreed to have sex. The Queen gave your father and Caetor a choice: They could pay all the Healer's expenses and make a settlement as compensation for breaking the girl and stripping her of her Jeweled power, or Caetor could stand before a tribunal of Queens to determine if the accusation of rape was justified. The only reason she offered a choice was because the girl is a nobody and Caetor is from one of Hayll's Hundred Families." Bitterness filled Martella's voice. "The question wouldn't have come up at all if we still had the wealth we deserve. But I suppose we can't expect your husband to understand aristo concerns."
Hekatah felt the verbal slice. Her family's opinion of her marriage was divided. "Saetan" was a common name among the lower social classes. Hell's fire! Even one of the footmen who worked at the family's house here in Draega was named Saetan. And "SaDiablo" wasn't even a twig on a branch of any of the Hundred Families. She'd searched when she'd considered him as a mate. Her mother and aunts had searched. He seemed to have come out of nowhere when he built SaDiablo Hall in Dhemlan and made the bargain with the Dhemlan Queens in both Terreille and Kaeleer to protect their people and lands in exchange for being the Warlord Prince of Dhemlan…theruler of both Dhemlan Territories. Socially unacceptable, he was still a Black-Jeweled Hayllian Warlord Prince who had wealth and power…two things she coveted. So she'd studied him until she was certain how to approach her quarry. She'd worked hard to dazzle him, to intrigue him, to convince him that the Jewels he wore and the power he wielded were insignificant compared to her feelings for the man.
But the wedding ring hadn't brought her what she'd thought to get from the bargain. Despite what she'd said, she'd wanted to bend the strength of those Black Jewels to her will, had wanted him to wield all that dark power on her behalf. Instead, she'd gotten the man. A man who followed the Blood's code of honor, even though he was powerful enough to do anything he wanted and no one could oppose him. Of course, no one really knew what he could do with the Black Jewels. Telling people he was the High Lord of Hell was a nice fillip for a reputation of temper that had never actually been seen. Not that she believed it for a moment. After all, sheknew the man.
